


Come Home

by TheAndorianMiningConsortium



Category: Star Trek: Enterprise
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-25
Updated: 2014-08-25
Packaged: 2018-02-14 15:58:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,141
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2197899
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheAndorianMiningConsortium/pseuds/TheAndorianMiningConsortium
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Inspired by her experiences on the Enterprise, Jhamel has gotten a taste for exploring. Much to the frustration of her family who feel that exploration is a dangerous activity.<br/>Note: this was the first 30 minute sprint I ever did.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Come Home

The setting sun was a milky lilac, lacing slowly behind the rings of Andor as it swept toward the horizon, touching all beneath it with its dim rays of light. A touch of warmth in the chill. Beneath them the girl stood, wrapped in two coats and a blanket, but nevertheless shivering, because her feet were entirely bare. A soft breeze ruffled her hair, whipping her skin, but all she did was smile.

_You should know better than to be out in the cold,_ came a stern voice in her head, but Jhamel ignored it. Her recent adventures had given her a taste for freedom, and all she wanted to do was to explore. To discover the world that until now had been so closed off to her. She'd been on a starship, she had travelled to the skies. She'd wrapped her loving arms and held her brother tight as she felt his poor tortured heart give out- feeling his pain with every ounce the intensity had there not been so many hundreds of lightyears between them. One could not go back to a normal life, after that.

_Come home_ went the persistent voice; again Jhamel ignored it. She stepped forwards through the snow, let it slip between her toes, cracking a smile as it tickled her bare feet. _Come home_ , the voice went on, more forcefully this time. _Come home_...

_Mother_. How, she asked herself silently, was she supposed to explore with her worried parental figure invading her thoughts all the time. With a small sigh of frustration she grabbed her coat around her and began to turn back. "Alright," she muttered allowed. "I'm coming back."

The journey home did not take long, but treading through the icy caves and tunnels was not easy. The floor was slippery, the caverns were treacherous, and she had to take care of where she placed her feet. After an hour or so, she reached the compound, treaded back to her family's home, and meekly, she entered. She knew that she was going to be in for a verbal scolding the moment that she walked through those doors.

"Jhamel!" meeting her prediction exactly, Jhamel's mother rose to greet her with a cross face and an even crosser tone in her angry voice- but it was laced with worry. She'd been up all evening, waiting for her.

"Mother," Jhamel acknowledged the greeting as if it was no more than any commonplace, everyday greeting. "You didn't have to wait up for me."

"Of course I did," stepping forward, the older woman placed a warm hand on her daughters cheek. "You're freezing!"

"I wanted to explore," Jhamel protested.

"Sit down. Dinner is waiting for you." Jhamel's mother bustled off to the kitchen briefly, before returning and dumping a dish unceremoniously on the table. "Don't you ever worry us like that again, do you hear me! How dare you even think of going off on your own like that! We've all been worried sick--"

As Jhamel quietly ate her dinner, her mother continued to scold, going on and on and on. Jhamel suppressed an irritated sigh. She supposed she could understand it- if someone she cared for had wandered off alone like that, she'd be worried too.

But how was she supposed to lead a normal life after what she'd been through, after all that she had experienced?

The rules here were too restrictive. A young woman her age needed to get out and lead her own life. Not remain cooped up in this tiny, closed-in little village forever more. _Try explaining that to Mother_ , she thought sourly to herself as she swallowed a mouthful of pie, not tasting it, barely even noticing as it went down. She wouldn't understand. She _couldn't_ understand. How many times had they had the same argument? Jhamel was tired of arguing.

So she ate in silence, merely pretending to listen as her thoughts floated away. Taking her to other worlds, other planets, into the stars. Into the depth of the unknown, that she so dearly longed to explore.

Finally she finished her dinner, and pushed the dish away. "And!" her mother was saying, "if I ever find out about you going off on your own again, I have a good mind to impose a new curfew upon you, it's unthinkable that you would let any harm come to yourself-" as Jhamel stood, her mother gasped in shock. "WHERE ARE YOUR SHOES?!" apparently, she had not noticed Jhamel's bare feet until now.

"I lost them," Jhamel replied quietly. She tried to sound as though she was sorry, but she really wasnt feeling it.

"Jhamel, my daughter, I have had enough of your behaviour. You're to get to--"

"--Bed," Jhamel finished. She made a face. "I know. Goodnight," turning to the door, she wished sorely for a moment that the technology that allowed doors to open automatically had never been invented. Then she could have had the pleasure of slamming it behind her.

As it was, she could only walk through, leaving her mother standing there, agape. Startled at the complete and utter lack of an argument.

But Jhamel was tired of arguing, so very very tired. She undressed, too apathetic to even throw her clothes down in a temper as she had done before. She was not prone to violence- no Aenar was- but there were times when sometimes she needed to let a little anger out anyway. It was in their blood, as much as they might try to deny it. Push it down and teach themselves more benign ways, it _was_ in their blood.

And since she could not get away with showing her temper in public...

Her mother, if she had known, would have put it down to mixing with the Andorians. Would have put all this down to mixing with the Andorians. They were a bad influence. Jhamel was picking up bad habits. Violence was not their way- hadn't she learned anything?

Perhaps she was right, thought Jhamel sadly as she curled up under the covers and tried to sleep. _Perhaps she was right._

But perhaps, perhaps she was wrong.

Her eyelids drooped and despite her bad mood, she yawned. She filled her head with thoughts of the stars, and distant, mysterious worlds, that beckoned to her from so far away. She drifted into dreams. She dreamt of the _Enterprise_ , she dreamt of Earth, and Vulcan, and planets far beyond, ones she hadn't even learned the names of yet. She dreamed of towering cities and magnificent palaces, or forests of great, beautiful plants, twisting away forever across an uncultivated, wild land. She dreamed of excitement and adventure. She dreamed of so many things.

Right now she couldn't go anywhere, she was resigned to being cooped up. Restricted. Bound by the rules.

But perhaps...

...One day.... one day.

_One day._


End file.
